MANKATO, Minn.— An elite portion of the Colorado Mesa University indoor track and field team combined for seven NCAA Division II Championship qualifying marks, three wins, three second place and three third place finishes on Saturday during the Minnesota State Massive Meet #2.
 
The meet was the second in as many days for the group of Mavericks in the Myers Field House and again saw the Maverick men take second while a smaller group of women finished seventh.  CMU's men took second out of 11 scoring teams with 71 points, coming from 11 scoring efforts, while the women finished with 27 team points from five scoring efforts.
 
However, the team standings were not the big story as the Mav athletes went into the trip with the goal of collecting improving their championship selection resumes, which was accomplished in many different ways as the Mavs combined for 11 new marks that rank amongst the top five of the RMAC performance lists throughout the weekend.
 
On Saturday, the Maverick men set four NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying marks while the CMU women had three.  Five were new or improved marks on the national performance list.
 
The women's 4x400-meter relay quartet of McKenna Molder, Sophie Lindauer, Mica Jenrette and Jordan Burnett finished in 3:47.84, the second fastest indoor time in program history behind only the 2021 national title winning mark of 3:47.09.  They finished fourth on the day in a mini-nationals type of race and now rank eighth in Division II with a track-size adjusted mark of 3:44.86.  That mark also leads the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
 
Burnett also set a personal record and improved NCAA provisional qualifying time of 24.94 seconds to finish second in the 200 meters with a converted time of 24.56 to increase her RMAC lead in that event.  She also did the same in the 400 meters on Friday in the first meet of the weekend with a school-record time.
 
Burnett now ranks 20^th nationally in the 200 and stands eight in the 400 as of Sunday morning.
 
Meanwhile, Kiana Jackson had an improved NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 12.15 meters (39 feet, 10 ½ inches) to take second in the triple jump, moving up to 13^th on the national performance list.

The CMU event wins came from Elijah Williams in the 60-meter dash, Zayden Davis in the 60-meter hurdles and Gunner Rigsby in the triple jump.
 
Williams, the school-record holder a 6.76 seconds, ran to a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 6.79 seconds to rank second in the RMAC and 21^st nationally.
 
Davis now ranks 19^th (tie) in the hurdles with his time of 8.03 seconds, just off his school-record time of 8.02, which was turned in at altitude last month.  He is also tied for second on the RMAC performance list.
 
Rigsby, competing for the first time since turning in his since-broken RMAC all-time record-setting triple jump effort of 16.17 meters in December, had a fine effort of 15.55 meters (51-0.25) on Saturday.  Teammate Spencer Purnell finished second with a leap of 14.57 meters (47-9.75) as both went over the NCAA provisional qualifying standard of 14.38 meters.  They continue to sit second and 12^th on the national lists with their earlier season-bests.

The Mav men also had three third place finishes from Hayden Riley in the shot put (16.05 meters/52-8), reigning RMAC Field Athlete of the Meet Justin Thompson in the long jump (7.02 meters/23-0.5) and the men's 4x400-meter quartet of Dayne Ortega, Kade Christensen, Kelsey Montague and Teo Casados. 
 
They ran to a time of 3:21.36, fifth fastest in school history.  Three of those men in Ortega, Montague and Casados teamed with Julio Antondo-Avaolos to set the CMU record last week.
 
On Saturday, Casados took fifth in the 60 meters at 6.97 seconds while Davis finished fifth in the 200 meters (22.83).  Sterling Brassfield was seventh in the 200 (23.00) while Zace Buckhold also scored team points with a fifth place finish in the long jump after a performance of 6.89 meters (22-7.25)
 
Elsewhere, Sierra Arceneaux turned in a season-best time of 7.74 seconds to finish sixth in the 60 meters while Josie Coffey finished fourth in the high jump with a clearance of 1.62 meters (5-3.75).  Lindauer also turned in a season-best mark of 1.52 meters (4-11.75) in that discipline.
 
Virginia Tomon also finished ninth in the women's shot put with a throw of 12.71 meters (41-8.5) while Jenrette finished 11^th in the 60-meter hurdle preliminaries.
 
The Mavericks are planning to send a contingent to Friday's Western Colorado Alumni Open in Gunnison, the final meet of the season before the RMAC Championships on Feb. 24-25 in Alamosa, Colorado.